City Council’s planning retreat reviews city’s strategic plan

Gardner held a four hour Strategic Planning Retreat on Nov. 13 at the Senior Center. Members of the council, along with leadership staff, reviewed major aspects of the city’s operation and functions that have led to the development of a results-driven citywide strategic plan.
The plan serves as a culmination of earlier planning efforts and will incorporate citizen input from community surveys, the council’s strategic priorities and goals, suggestions from advisory boards, objectives from planning documents, and previously identified capital projects to form a multi-year roadmap for achieving ongoing success.
A key element of the retreat centered on the unveiling of the city’s performance dashboards included in the strategic plan. Performance dashboards, also known as a progress report, provide an at-a-glance view of key performance markers related to a specific objective or business process. Once published, the public can access the dashboards via the city’s website.
“Dashboards allow the city to gauge performance as well as monitor, manage and measure progress toward reaching business goals,” said Cheryl Harrison-Lee, city administrator. “Gardner will be joining several progressive cities and counties who use this analysis tool to increase transparency and optimize business productivity.”
Following the retreat, a final version of the strategic plan will be presented to the governing body for official approval at a future city council meeting.